Jumpstarter 10 of 10

Direct Answer In the transcript, living as part of the “one all-embracing commonwealth, the world” means shifting loyalty from nation-state priorities to the kingdom of God, refusing methods that injure others, and often declining political power to focus on church service and salvation; the transcript doesn’t map personal voting habits, but it clearly challenges nationalism, war-justifying rhetoric, and pursuit of state power.

Support from Transcript:

• Tertullian: “nothing is more entirely foreign to us than the affairs of state. We acknowledge one all-embracing commonwealth, the world.”
• Origen: Christians decline public offices not to escape duty but to reserve themselves for “more divine and necessary service in the church…for the salvation of men.”
• Bercot notes their “national pride” was in “the kingdom of God,” not earthly governments.
• Tertullian’s question about officials shows incompatibility: “if Christians could have been Caesars,” implying they believed you “can’t do both.”
• He explains many offices required idolatry or coercion (sacrifices, festivals, oaths, judging lives, imprisoning, torturing), asking, “Now is it believable that all of this is possible?”
• Lactantius argues serving country through bloodshed is sin: expanding boundaries and protecting interests are done by “injures…despoils…kills,” and “he who repays injury for injury is…imitating” evil.